Season 1, Episode 12: Beauty Contest

Come on – if you remember only a handful of Dawson's Creek episodes, this one MUST be in there: if we were to translate the title into a Friends episode, this would be The One Where, Although It Contradicts Everything We've Learnt About Her All Season Long, Joey Enters a Beauty Contest (and So Does Pacey, But Pacey Can Do ANYTHING HE WANTS).

Pre-titles: it's movie night as usual chez Dawson's bedroom, but Joey and Dawson are watching some gross doco on bug mating in lieu of the usual Hollywood classic, because Dawson has a paper on...err...bug mating due. The season-long, barely repressed, much denied sexual tension between the pair is expressed this time not through suspicious wrestling, but in the form of an argument over whether, LIKE BUGS, humans mate by instinct or not. Dawson says there must be an element of instinct guiding humans in their romantic entanglements, to which I say: YOUR INSTINCTS SUCK ASS THEN DAWSON, BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE IN LOVE WITH BITCHFACE JEN AND YOU ARE OBLIVIOUS TO JOEY PINING OVER YOU RIGHT NOW DAMMIT RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. Also, Joey's instinct's are all messed up, because remember how last episode, Pacey Witter KISSED HER FACE OFF and she was all like “Um, meh, where's Dawson?”

NO-ONE WITH CORRECTLY WORKING INSTINCTS WOULD RESPOND IN THAT FASHION. THE CORRECT RESPONSE IS TO RECIPROCATE AND KISS PACEY WITTER'S FACE OFF IN RETURN. HELLO? Joey is obvs defective.

At least Joey is aware of her screwy instincts because she is all like “I don't know if humans are like bugs, Dawson, I DON'T KNOW *bites lip and looks coy*” which is actually a good way to shut down an inane conversation and take us to the titles.

I DON'T WANNA WAAAAAAAAIT! etc.

So the gang are weirdly all together – Pacey, Dawson and Jen are hanging out at the Icehouse with Joey loitering while she is supposed to be waiting tables. Let's not ask why Jen and Dawson are in the same place apparently just hanging out like BFFs when last time we saw them IT WAS HORRIFIC and BITCHFACE JEN WAS STOMPING DAWSON'S HEART INTO A FINE POWDER, SETTING IT ON FIRE THEN PISSING ON IT as she revealed the truth about their breakup on a mo-foing FERRIS WHEEL Dawson couldn't even escape from.

We rapidly learn:

• Dawson hasn't let Jen's Ferris Wheel burn of shame go, but instead of GETTING OVER HER, he's embarking on a campaign to win her back with biting sarcasm and cutting remarks that disguise how much he still adores her. A misguided strategy, but then, Dawson's an idiot and admits to Pacey he's probably just trying to win Jen back in his deranged fashion OUT OF HABIT.
• Dawson's mum is one of the judges in an upcoming annual beauty pageant, the Miss Windjammer contest, held at a local yacht club.
• Joey, unsurprisingly, is against beauty pageants.
  
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
• Jen's mum used to make her participate in beauty pageants when she was a kid “before she was old enough to object” - so I guess her and Joey are on the same team on this issue.
• Dawson, UNSURPRISINGLY, is Mr INSENSITIVE – telling Jen that she should enter because she is SO BEAUTIFUL and going on and on about it RIGHT IN FRONT OF JOEY, without even a “you too, Jo!”. Sure, she has made it clear she thinks it's a stupid contest, but YOU COULD TELL HER SHE'S PRETTY TOO, DOOFUS.

Most importantly, we learn that the Miss Windjammer contest doesn't just come with a silly title, but a sweet $5000 cash prize, plus a trip to New York. And then we learn about two of “the gang'' who could really use that prize.

JOEY: I'm sure you've already guessed it, but if you've been ignoring Joey's whining season long, then here: Joey is willing to enter the pageant and sell out her principles for the prospect of winning the $5000 cash. Bitchface Jen once again tries to extend the hand of friendship to Jo at the Icehouse, waiting casually until Joey is counting her meagre tips, which she comments on. HELLO JEN THAT'S ACTUALLY PRETTY RUDE TO OPEN A CONVERSATION BY TALKING ABOUT SOMEONE'S EARNINGS, BUT WHATEVS, YOU HAVE NO MANNERS. Joey spills – tips are down, and OMG SHE HAS TO GET OUT OF CAPESIDE AND A SCHOLARSHIP IS HER ONLY HOPE BUT WHAT IF THEY DON'T GIVE HER ENOUGH MONEY WHAT WHAAAAAT?

I know what you should do, Joey. THE ONLY POSSIBLE THING YOU CAN DO. You should enter a local beauty contest and pin all your hopes on winning a one off cash prize, depending on the fact that a) you won't be disqualified for being best friends with the judge's son and b) no-one will see through your inexperience and total disdain for the whole thing, and VOILA! ALL YOUR PROBLEMS WILL BE SOLVED. Especially if you let Bitchface Jen, YOUR FORMER LOVE RIVAL be your coach on how to be a Real Girl.

PACEY: It makes me so sad when Dawson's Creek is mean to Pacey, WHO IS THE COOLEST GUY EVER. But Dawson meets up with Pacey at his locker in the corridors of Capeside High, and finds Pacey FREAKING THE FUCK OUT because he can't find a pen. Obviously Pace is under some pressure. It all comes down to his dad – Pacey's policeman father thinks Pacey is a wastrel, a clown, a layabout, a no-goodnik, and he is apparently not shy in sharing his negative opinion of his son WITH his son. Dawson, having ridiculously supportive parents is incapable of comprehending just how broken the relationship between the Witters is. 

And then this:

Heartbreaking. For Pacey to consider entering the beauty pageant is pure Pacey Witter: on the surface, it seems like a joke, something he doesn't take that seriously. But underneath – he has very real reasons for actually needing the prize and seriously wanting to win.

If he's gonna move out, he can't pay rent on his part-time video store minimum wage. 

THE REGISTRATION:

Jen has taken to calling Joey “Miss America” as Joey fills in the requisite forms.

Beauty pageant “coach” and professional bitchface Jen is confident of Joey's ability to win the contest based on the appearance of the competition lining up at registration at the yacht club. Especially when they hear Pacey arguing his way into the contest claiming that it's discrimination to deny him based on his gender.

They run into Dawson who OUTDOES HIMSELF at insensitivity:

• assuming that they are there because JEN decided to enter
• when he is corrected, assuming that Joey must be entering undercover to do an 'expose' on pageants for the newspaper
• then when Joey shoots that theory down, assuming that Joey is joking about entering ALTOGETHER. Seriously. Dawson. SHUT YOUR FACE BEFORE JOEY PUNCHES YOUR MOUTH.

Joey, QUITE RIGHTLY gets really pissed off. Which will be an interesting look for the pageant.

Meanwhile, it seems Pacey has successfully argued his way into the contest – there's nothing in the rulebook saying boys CAN'T enter, so grudgingly, the yacht club mavens HAVE to let him in. As all the girls, and Pacey, are read the contest rules, Pacey gets into a wisecracking bitchfight with Hannah von Wenning, a snobby rich girl he knows from his childhood who OBVIOUSLY expects to win.

THE COACHING

Jen attempts to teach Joey how to walk in high heels – and SERIOUSLY? If she thinks Joey is winning material, when the girl walks with her TONGUE STICKING OUT (and needed to be taught how to walk in high heels full stop) then the other girls in the contest must be basically retarded.

Also, I don't know if you've noticed, but a lot of the time, Jen walks like a truckdriver wearing jackboots. WOULD YOU LET HER TEACH YOU HOW TO WALK TO WIN A BEAUTY PAGEANT?

When all the walking is done, Jen and Joey have a super awkward convo that is basically a mutual “So what's the deal with you and Dawson?” info exchange. Jen: “We're figuring things out”. Joey: “He will always see me as the gawky girl from down the Creek”.

Over at Dawson's place, Pacey has enlisted Man-Meat and Dawson as his gurus of pageantdom. HAS ANYBODY WONDERED ABOUT THE ETHICS OF ALL OF THIS YET? Hello? The HUSBAND and SON of one of the pageant judges are coaching one of the contestants? IS THAT NOT....SOME KIND OF BREACH OF RULES?

To be honest though, it's not like Pacey is a frontrunner for anything but the sympathy vote at this stage. He sings a...spirited...rendition of New York New York that gets a furrowed brow from Man-Meat. And WHAT WILL HE WEAR FOR THE FORMAL WEAR SECTION? (oooh Pacey, I bet you scrub up nice).

Hellooooo Mr Witter!

Man-Meat vanishes and it's time for the girly talk. It's sort of easy to forget that Pacey really likes Joey and backed off because she rejected him because of her unrequited love for Dawson, but also how Dawson was a total dick about Pacey's feelings for Joey. It's summed up nicely in this scene, with the two boys talking about the pageant and Joey entering and how Dawson just doesn't ever see Joey as a woman, he sees her as a “sister”, so anything romantic with her – which he has never thought about – would feel “incestuous”. Pacey: (pissed off and bitter) “So you don't want to be with her but you don't want anyone else to be with her?!”

Dawson: (just looks like a stunned mullet)

OKAY YOU GUYS. Don't think for a second I have forgotten why I started this blog – to EVENTUALLY – even though at this rate it's gonna take me LITERAL YEARS – finally see the final episode of Dawson's Creek I have NEVER SEEN.

I haven't lived under a rock so much that I don't know that it basically does (at least partly) boil down to Joey having to choose between Pacey and Dawson. HELLO the seeds are already planted for who that should be. Dawson's an idiot. Pacey is THE MAN.

And that, my friends, is a point that just gets RAMMED home in the remainder of the episode, which I will give the sur-title: DAWSON IS A GIANT DOUCHEBAG.

THE PAGEANT

Long story short: neither of them wins the freaking pageant.

Pacey was never going to win, because he's a guy in a female beauty pageant, which makes him at best a novelty and at worst a freakshow, but the saddest thing about his storyline is that he proves, as Pacey does, time and again as the series goes on, that when Pacey Witter applies himself, he is a force to be reckoned with, yet EVERYONE IS DETERMINED TO UNDERESTIMATE HIM FOREVER. Even as the “novelty” contestant, Pacey is charming, gives fantastic, intelligent answers to the inane pageant questions, he scrubs up well, and the audience ADORE him and his charismatic, cheeky stage presence. It's hard not to think he could actually have a shot at winning – even as the token guy in the contest.

Would it have killed them to have invented an "Audience Favourite" prize for the guy? SERIOUSLY?

So when Pacey is informed by Gail Leery (in a vastly unprofessional move in her role as contest judge) that yes, he's the audience favourite, but “honey, you know you haven't a snowball's chance in hell of winning, right?” he is GUTTED. In an instant, Pacey goes from having the potential to be really something – rewarded for being his charming, intelligent self, back to being a joke, and he's HUMILIATED, because he realises that everyone saw him as a joke from the start – and he was the only person taking his entry in the contest seriously.

It really does make me so sad AND YES I DO REALISE HE'S A FICTIONAL CHARACTER.

His reaction to finding out he can't win is to forego his planned talent performance – a magic routine – in favour of making a statement:

The upside for Pace is that he discovers that his life isn't as crappy as he thought - or at least he's not as alone in having a crappy family. He goes to offer ''losing advice" to Hannah von Wenning and discovers her life is far from perfect - they are both kind of black sheep in their families.

Joey actually puts up a good fight, despite being the most sour faced, sullen contestant to ever grace the Miss Windjammer stage, EVER;

 and wows the audience (I use the term “wows” loosely) with her...rendition of On My Own in the talent portion of the contest.

WHY HAVE SINGING IN THE EPISODE IF IT HAS TO BE REALLY CREEPY DUBBED SINGING?

Ahem, anyway. Weird singing aside, as any good reality show judges would tell you, it's all about song choice, and little Joey Potter NAILED it. Because not only does she wow the audience and impress the judges, her complete transformation from “tomboy/gawky girl from down the Creek” to “girl awkwardly wearing an evening dress, high heels, too much makeup and an up-do – aka A REAL GIRL”, coupled with her song mournfully lamenting her unrequited love (complete with furtive sidelong glances at the object of her affection) finally makes Dawson stare creepily at her in a way that is wrong for someone who regards her as a sister. 

This bums Bitchface Jen out, who has decided OUT OF THE BLUE that she wants Dawson BACK – because she had no real reason for dumping him.

 But Dawson only has eyes for Sparkly New Pageant Joey.

And that's why Dawson is a douchebag. HE WANTS HER NOW SHE LOOKS PRETTY. And he tells her so. To Joey's credit – she rejects Dawson when he's all like “Wow Joey I think I have feelings for you SUDDENLY”.

SHE REJECTS DAWSON – the guy she has been pining over FOREVER – because he wants a version of her that isn't really her. She tells him it's not what she imagined. She imagined him realising how great she is as herself – Joey – the girl he has known forever – not some version of herself that has to learn to walk in heels and put on lipstick and parade in front of strangers in a contest.

 FUCK YEAH! TEAM JOEY BITCHES!

And do you know what? I know people diss Dawson's Creek all the time, but that right there is a pretty awesome message, even if everything else turns to shit from here on in.

Season 1, Episode 6: Baby

Bessie goes into labour, a week early! But Bodie's gone out of town for...some work thing, Bessie gets the ute stuck in mud, the phone's not working so she can't call an ambulance (another one of those subtle “Joey's family's poor” reminders) so Joey, in an ultra suspicious plot twist has to row her across the creek to the closest phone. At Dawson's house. Where CONVENIENTLY:

• Mitch and Gail are away at a couples' retreat (guess he decided NOT to hate her in the end)
• we learn there is only one ambulance servicing Capeside but it's an hour away at a traffic accident and women in labour are not a priority

Faced with an...irate...pregnant woman none too thrilled at the thought of two high-school students delivering her first child, Joey sucks it up and goes next door to ask Mrs Ryan, a registered nurse, for help.

This pleases Bessie EVEN LESS than the prospect of Dawson and Joey being in charge, given Jen's gran has OPINIONS on Joey's family (basically, the Potters are wicked sinners: not only is there the whole druggie dad in jail, but Bessie and Bodie are a mixed race couple LIVING IN SIN AND BREEDING).

Guess what? The ambulance never arrives (quelle surprise!) and Mrs Ryan has to deliver the baby.

Here's what we learn through this turn of events.

• that although just moments prior, Mrs Ryan and Jen were shown, YET AGAIN arguing about religious beliefs, with Grams expressing her dislike for the arty naked men calendar Jen has on the wall and then hiding a Bible in Jen's drawer (implicit: JUST COME TO CHURCH ALREADY JEN); and although previous episodes have indicated that Mrs Ryan has definitely got a problem with Joey's family, SHE CAN PUT HER PERSONAL FEELINGS ASIDE AND ACT IN THE TRUE, NON-JUDGEMENTAL SENSE OF HELPING THOSE IN NEED. I am not a Christian but it's always struck me that THAT is (or should be) what true Christianity is about? Isn't that really ''love thy neighbour” when you get down to it?

• Up to a point, I am all “OMG Mrs Ryan is SO BADASS AWESOME”. She puts her judgement aside to take leadership of the situation; she smacks Dawson's camera out of the way as he is filming Bessie (which did seem a little bit mean, he WAS only trying to help and he IS only a 15 year old boy...but haha she essentially punched Dawson in the face by proxy, which is HILARIOUS); and she lays a super-smackdown on Jen who so had it coming. Seriously, if I was in a situation where someone was giving birth and there was a registered nurse in charge, dishing out instructions, I would FREAKING DO AS I WAS TOLD, not question every single instruction and freak out the expectant mother by mentioning scary details I really have no experience of like “THERE'S A LOT OF BLOOD SOMETHING'S WRONG ISN'T IT?” Grams uses this as an opportunity to teach Jen about having faith – like “If you are going to stay and help, I need you to develop some faith IN ME, and shut up and DO WHAT YOU ARE TOLD because I know what I am doing”. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  IF ONLY THE LESSON IN FAITH HAD STOPPED THERE.
• But it doesn't. Dawson's Creek writers wreck things, and make me throw out my new Team Grams button, and also make me THROW UP IN MY MOUTH at the point where Bessie is exhausted and losing too much blood, and can't push, and wants something for the pain. Jen is being an unhelpful idiot, and going “GIVE HER A SEDATIVE!” Do you SEE any freaking sedatives just laying around, Jen? Because I'm pretty sure Grams would have shoved them down your throat a while back to shut you the fuck up. (Hey guess what? Looks like I'm off Team Jen! WOOT). Grams gets this weird, beatific glow, which is creepy, because it is like it is coming out of Bessie's vagina, and starts reciting the Lord's Prayer.

No. NOOOO. (Bessie pretty much says the same thing). And Grams goes “Oh, it's not for you! (subtext: because you're living in sin with a BLACK man. I really hope Jen pipes up at some stage and points out Jesus was black) It's for the BABY.” Cue all three of them – Grams, Bessie and FREAKING JEN, that atheist, reciting the Lord's Prayer until the baby pops out.

Meanwhile...Pacey reveals this episode that he is a 4 million times better human being, not to mention far more adult, than that insane burned out wreck of a woman he's been sleeping with (otherwise known as his English teacher, Ms Tamara Jacobs).

Everything about their relationship to my adult eyes is just so painful and twisted to watch. Pacey is pushing Tamara for a real date outside of Capeside where they can go out in the open with their relationship, instead of being confined to hiding inside her house on the pretext of a tutoring session.

(Pretty sure I don't need to spell out everything that is horrifically wrong about Ms Tamara Jacobs, but to seduce a student already in need of academic help – and use ''study sessions'' as the cover for your shenanigans, thereby ensuring he doesn't RECEIVE the academic help he needs...you're not just a sick person, you're a terrible teacher).

It all goes horribly wrong when Pacey – understandably excited and in the flush of youthful passion (as misguided as it may be) – confides the news of the potential date with Ms Jacobs to Dawson in the ''privacy'' of the boys toilets at Capeside High. He fails to properly check whether any of the cubicles are occupied, however, and a rumour that “Pacey Witter and Ms Jacobs are having a hot affair” spreads through the school - and the town - like wildfire.

Joey and Pacey have AN AWFUL LOT IN COMMON. Both of them put themselves second in this episode, stepping up for someone else at the last minute (Pacey for Ms Jacobs; Joey puts her fear aside to be beside Bessie as she gives birth). But it's a scene near the beginning of this episode that fills me with anticipatory JOY – despite Pacey and Joey's antagonism toward each other, Joey is the first to comfort Pacey in the aftermath of the rumour getting out. She knows how he feels and doesn't try and take the pain away, just lets him know he isn't alone. It's my favourite scene in the whole episode.

Pacey reacts like a 15 year old in love: he doesn't know any better than to try and work it out with the person he (thinks he) loves.

Tamara reacts like...she's been in this situation before.

 

BITCHFACE

Inevitably, there's a hearing in front of the school board. Tamara Jacobs, the 36 year old adult woman, in a position of power, who KNEW Pacey was her student, who knew better than to get involved – this is her time to front up to her involvement in a federal offence.

…

You could wait forever for that to happen. Pacey, poor, smitten, love-struck Pacey, fronts up, and claims the rumour was the fantasy of his adolescent mind. That Ms Jacobs is innocent.

Pacey's speech is another Dawson's Creek genius metaphor moment, and a really poignant painful one, at that. Pacey DOES WHAT MS JACOBS, that irresponsible, CRIMINAL BITCH, is incapable of doing - he rises above his own selfish feelings. He lets it go, and lets Ms Jacobs go, and takes the blame, and no-one but Dawson (and Ms Jacobs) will ever know the truth.

Of course, Dawson's Creek has Pacey go and attempt a final goodbye with Ms Pedophilia 1998 because he is 15 and still thinks there's a chance they can be boyfriend-girlfriend. HA! Turns out SHE'S RESIGNED (shocker, also HALLELUJAH) and is going to visit her sister in Rochester.

 (WOMP WOMP)

I HOPE YOU ENJOY... JAIL, TAMARA!

Season 1, Episode 5: Hurricane

The set-up for episode 5 is simple and genius, and also mildly confusing, in that it opens with Joey and Dawson happily watching TV together in Dawson's room, waiting for the weather report as if Dawson had not declared Joey dead to him last episode (it turns out he's still mildly pissed but it's a case of "heeey at least you're not a slut, Jo, I need SOMEONE to hang out with"). A hurricane is fast approaching Capeside, school is cancelled and Dawson's house is the safest place to be, apparently; so Joey, Joey's sister Bessie and Bessie's boyfriend Bodie head to the Leery's for shelter, as do Jen and her grandmother. While Mitch is busy battening down the hatches that adulterous hussy Gail is still being an adulterous hussy...and everybody knows.

EXCEPT IT'S NOT SAFE AT THE LEERY'S! While everyone may be safe from the meteorological hurricane (“Hurricane Chris”), there's a HURRICANE OF EMOTIONS brewing and getting ready to WRECK SOME SHIT.

That hurricane, I'm sure you have already guessed, is Hurricane Dawson, who since last episode has worked on his crazy attack. Check him out, catching his adulterous whore of a mother on the phone to her lover: 

and then...just...oh NO YOU DI'NT DAWSON:

The only person who can outdo him in sheer unadulterated pettiness is Joey, who plays her trump card:

Dawson (and Joey) lurking around every corner making veiled allusions to what THEY KNOW finally push Gail to confess her adulterous affair to Mitch. To which I say:

a) Gail? Could you not have waited like, 2 hours for ALL THOSE RANDOM PEOPLE TO LEAVE YOUR HOUSE? Because seriously? That's freaking AWKWARD.

b) Gail?! What kind of a mother are you that you want to confess your adultery to your husband IN FRONT OF YOUR 15 YEAR OLD SON? It's bad enough he had to guilt you into it; don't make him be part of this conversation, YOU CRAZY BITCH.

As you can probably imagine, IT DOES NOT GO WELL (and Gail's hair, it turns out, reflects her emotional state). We also discover EXACTLY where Dawson gets his flair for the melodramatically emo from: 

Meanwhile, over on (I assume) the other side of town, Pacey is being forced to hang out with his big brother, Deputy Doug Witter, as he makes his rounds checking on properties and helping people prepare for the oncoming storm. 

Whose property should they come across other than Ms Tamara Jacobs? When she claims to hate storms and be super scared of the hurricane, Doug offers the Witter Bros services to help secure the property and to stay and ride out the storm with her. Commence Deputy Doug flirting, which involves bonding over show tunes. 

And Pacey making this face. 

AWKWARD.

Actually, no, the definition of awkward is your cop brother pulling a gun on you and threatening to shoot you unless you tell the teacher he's flirting with, who you're secretly sleeping with, that he's not gay. 

THIS EPISODE IS ACTUALLY FULL OF GOOD STUFF

1. We find out in this episode that “Jen's Grandma” is actually known to other people as “Mrs Ryan”. She also, awesomely, gets to show another side to her character, other than the one-note “Judgemental Old Religious Lady” she has been stuck as thus far. I actually forgot how much I liked Mrs Ryan and how she gradually reveals herself to be a caring, kind, incredibly wise and supportive person to have onside.

 She talks to Dawson in a language he can understand: film. 

Because initially – yeah, sour-puss with an unfortunate way of phrasing things.

2. We get a hint into Pacey's background. It's weird how Pacey is the least fleshed out character so far: he's a seemingly happy go lucky clown who doesn't do well with girls (his own admission, last ep) and who is flunking at school (Ms Jacobs told him when she offered an inappropriate 'study incentive' that she'd been speaking to his other teachers about his grades). But that's all we know. This episode we discover that he has a brother in the police (Deputy Doug! His love of showtunes and Broadway musicals is worth remembering, although he claims he isn't gay) but interestingly, that his father is the Capeside Chief of Police. The way Doug talks about Pacey in front of Ms Jacobs is really sad too: he puts him down constantly, and refuses to believe the good things Ms Jacobs (in her role as teacher, lol) says about him, because “that doesn't sound like Pacey”.

3. Jen and Joey continue to slowly warm up to each other, bonding because Dawson is being a jerk to both of them. They have a really sweet scene, actually, where they are discussing the potential size of Dawson's...err...package, the way girls TOTALLY do; Joey drops the hostility and the fake 'bad girl' routine she has pulled thus far in all her dealings with Jen and is genuinely coy about Dawson and sex; Jen defers to Joey's knowledge of all things Dawson, and appeals to her “girl to girl”. Something about this little scene just struck me as really nicely done.

4. Dawson's dad is dreaming of building a scuba-diving themed restaurant. Called the Kelp, or something. Just remember that. He's tinkering with the model when Gail breaks the news. 

5. WE FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO JEN.

Don't judge me you guys, but I cried during this episode, and it was totally unexpected – because remember? I was never Team Jen, and didn't care ONE BIT about her story. And yeah – her pronouncements up to now about teen sex have tended to be a tad didactic and tonally out of sync with the rest of the episode, but I can overlook it. Because I REALLY DID HATE DAWSON last episode for being SUCH an asshole and judging Jen based on learning one fact that wasn't to his liking.

And now we learn all the facts. Jen approaches Dawson as the hurricane ends, after he has broken his silence by all but calling her a slut to her face. And she tells him the whole truth, so he can judge her all he wants. 

Damn it. I cried so hard. 

This doesn't mean I want him to BE with Jen though. DAMMIT Dawson's Creek is so confusing.

Last episode was where the emotional side of things started ramping up: this episode marks the official point where I am, all snark aside, TOTALLY INVESTED IN THIS SHIT.